A COMPARISON OF CRITICAL THINKING ABILITIES BETWEEN ACCELERATED AND TRADITIONAL BACCALAUREATE NURSING-STUDENTS

Critical thinking is an outcome expected of all nursing graduates. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of an accelerated nursing curriculum on students' abilities to think critically. The Wa tson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (WGCTA) was used to measure th e critical thinking ability of the student nurses. The sample consiste d of two groups of BSN students: traditional (n = 45) and accelerated (n = 43). Both groups completed the WGCTA at the beginning and end of their nursing course sequence. Findings revealed a significant differe nce between the test scores of the two groups at the beginning of the curriculum (t = -2.42) but no significant difference at the end (t = - 1.76). Findings also revealed significant differences in pre- and post -curriculum test scores of traditional students (t = -2.84) but no dif ference for accelerated students (t = -1.65). Findings have implicatio ns for BSN program development.